Lil Wayne’s upcoming album ‘Tha Carter IV’ may very well be his last. In his cover story for the July/August 2011 issue of XXL magazine, Lil Wayne hints that he may retire while he’s still on top:

I’m bowing out still on top, I’ma make y’all want me when I retire. I’ma make y’all be like, ‘Nooo!’ I ain’t leaving out this b*tch when y’all be like, ‘Yeah, it’s about time, dawg.’ Carter IV might be my last one. I’ma make y’all be like, ‘F*ck!’ Yeah, n*gga, I’m gone.

Wayne also revealed that his forthcoming album is all about how interesting Dwayne Michael Carter is and what the future holds for his artists Drake and Nicki Minaj.

What is good about me is that I’m an interesting muthaf–ka. I’m Dwayne Michael Carter period! Whether I’m a rapper or not, I’m interesting. And that’s what my album’s gonna be about: me and how interesting I am.

I expect to eat, and eat well. I expect [Drake] to be a lot more successful than he has ever been. I mean, this guy’s a superstar. He is the definition. That’s what I told y’all before he was: ‘That’s the definition of a superstar.’ And like Nicki, he’s only breaking ice. He has yet to be who he’s going to be. I’m banking on them.

When Nicki Minaj emerged from a glowing teleporter center stage at Staples Center on Monday night, to the opening hums of her ferocious track “Roman’s Revenge,” she showed her latest ambition: to be a stadium-packing touring act.

It’s the only explanation as to why the rapper, who is hip-hop’s reigning it girl, would return a second time in as many months after supporting Lil Wayne on his I Am Still Music tour. For fans who saw that quick set in April, it was apparent she was moving herself into the arena touring landscape where female rappers haven’t been a presence in recent years.

Her music ranges from hardcore to pop friendly, so it’s not surprising that her second trek in a year shows her supporting pop royalty Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale tour. Spears was the main dish, of course, but there was a moment at Staples when Minaj ruled the stage with razor-sharp bangs and body-hugging attire on full display.

While she played the true team player role while on the road with Wayne (he likes to bring out his Young Money family during his set), with Spears, she proved to be a serious live player with elaborate staging, a theatrical story line, choreography and costume changes.

Pop & Hiss caught up with Minaj ahead of her stop in Anaheim on Friday for a conversation about the tour so far, wardrobe malfunctions and why she isn’t 100% comfortable onstage.

I wanted the direction to feel like a few girls from another planet. One of them just happens to be “the chosen one.” They embark on a journey to go to a few different cities and search for this person named Nemesis. I wanted it to be really theatrical and fun. And I just wanted to make the audience feel like they were spying on our world.

Lil Wayne and Britney Spears have very different fanbases, and your music sort of treads the line between both. What did you think about jumping on Spears’ tour?

Well, initially, what I thought was I hope this audience will appreciate what I do. What I first dealt with was a bit of the unknown. Is this something that Britney’s crowd will even enjoy? But it all went away the first night. I stood in the transporter, that big prop that we have on the stage, and I could not believe the crowd reaction before they even saw me. It was very emotional for me. I was so shocked. I thought, OK, on the Wayne tour, this is my audience, everyone that knows Wayne, they know Nicki Minaj. When I heard those screams, it was one of the best feelings in the world. It changed overnight. I’m pleasantly surprised with the people coming out on this show; they generally are coming out not to critique, but to have fun. The hip-hop community tends to be more critical. On this stage, I felt a little bit more free.

Wayne’s tour wrapped about a month ago. What type of time did you have to prep for this tour, which is a completely different show for you?

I’m going to be honest: I haven’t even done a dress rehearsal for this tour yet. I know most people wouldn’t come out and say that, but we’ve been really, really pulling this off by the skin of my teeth because like you said, I had just come off a tour, and right after the tour we had to prep for a lot of other things. We really didn’t have a lot of prep time, and then of course I’m not the headlining act so I didn’t get time on the stage, I didn’t get time for my lighting and my cues. We really have been pulling it off.

I wanted more time to nurture the show and get it to the point where I was ready to see it, but unfortunately tick, tick, tick, it was time to go up. So just being honest, I really don’t think the show is where I want it to be as far as preparation. People don’t notice, you’ll never know, but I’m having all these wardrobe malfunctions. [During Monday’s performance] my dress broke, I couldn’t walk down the aisle on “Fly,” for the fight scene my holster didn’t come off in time — it was a lot of craziness backstage. I really can’t wait for people to see this show after we start to feel comfortable. These three shows have been our dress rehearsals. We’re definitely not in our comfort zone yet.

That didn’t come across at all onstage, so that’s surprising to hear. You squeezed a lot of songs into your set, which was impressive. Is getting the rehearsal time something that’s going to change since the tour is moving so quick, and you’re in Anaheim on Friday?

What we’ve been doing, honestly, is every time we have a show we book rehearsal on our personal time. We’ll book rehearsal at the dance studio that’s in that city, or at the hotel that’s in that city so that we can be running it. But I’m really glad that you see that [about the setlist]. That was one of the big decisions that I made. I was like, I want to squeeze in as many songs as possible because I want people to have a variety. Like on the Wayne tour I had certain songs that I did… but on this one, my way of thinking was I’d rather do more songs so people can hear their favorites somewhere in the middle of that, instead of just a few songs and people are like, ‘Ugh… I didn’t hear any of the ones I do love.’ I wanted to make it a people-pleaser type of show.

People are anticipating your solo tour. What are you going to take from both the Wayne and Britney tours that you can incorporate into your solo headlining tour, which is set to kick off next year?

Let me just say I’m going to take from Britney and Wayne, because they’re both veterans. Being completely honest I’ve learned so much from them, in terms of production. Britney’s production is so amazing. When I sat out there the first night to watch it, I felt like I was a kid at an amusement park. It was so much, the lights, the content and the props. Whereas Wayne, he teaches me how to command a crowd. His comfort level and how he makes people feel like he’s their best friend when he’s onstage. He has that command. If you can put both of those two things into a show, you can really do an amazing show — that’s my goal. Am I gonna be able to do these humongous venues within the next year? Probably not. But am I gonna put on an amazing show and give everyone something that’s gonna be well worth what they paid? Absolutely yes.

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Last year’s edition of the 50 Most Popular Women on the Web (According to Google) blew up on the internet. It was one of those hotly debated lists that drove people nuts. Of course, most lists and rankings invite commentary and criticism because of their subjectivity, but there’s no questioning our tried and true formula for crowning the Queen of the Internet. So, who takes the top spot in THIS year’s survey? Who are the surprising newcomers? Who dropped off the cyber-face of the planet?

#5 Nicki Minaj – 296,000,000 Results

(2010 Ranks: Unranked) Nicki jumped all the way to #7 having not been on the list at all last year. That’s what happens, though, when you become the first artist ever to have seven songs on the Billboard Top 100.

Update: A source close to Mary J. Blige’s camp has informed Billboard.com that “Feel Inside” is not a true Mary J. Blige and Nicki Minaj collaboration. The song that leaked online late last night is a studio mashup of two completely different in-progress tracks the divas are working on separately. The source confirmed that Mary and Nicki are indeed working on a song together this just ain’t it.

Last night (June 21), a song allegedly off Mary J. Blige’s tenth album, “My Life 2: The Journey Continues” surfaced on the ‘net. “Feel Inside,” featuring Nicki Minaj, showcases both women fed up with their current relationships.

“Feel Inside” opens with Nicki Minaj warning her beau to step it up, “But peace of my mind is what I don’t got/ You make a girl hit up the dope spot/White line, it’s a thin line/Prenup, been signed/ So quit playing, bench time”

The Queen B follows, singing from her weary heart, “Waisting so much time disagreeing/ See I’m to the point where I don’t know what I believe in… I’m feeling really bad, feeling kind of low, think it’s time to go.”

Mary J. Blige borrows inspiration from the Wu-Tang Clan, sampling their hit, “Triumph.”

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Love her or hate her, Nicki Minaj is on fire!

Since hopping on track after track, as a featured guest starting in 2009, the Young Money recording artist has been on a roll, propelling herself to superstar status as a musician.

Nicki has broke a few records too. This week, the official music video for her latest single, “Super Bass,” was viewed over 1 million times on the Music Choice channel, Video On Demand service offered to cable subscribers.

According to Rentrak (an audience measurement company), Minaj’s video garnered a record-setting 1,436,807 page views in just one week. The strong numbers made “Super Bass” the best one-week performance of a video on the VOD channel since its launch in 2004.

(Watch the video for “Super Bass” right here )

But, it doesn’t stop there.

Minaj’s videos hold three of the five slots on the channel’s one-week viewing records list — “Right Thru Me” received 1,278,807 million views in a week; and “Your Love” snagged 1,062,915 views in seven days back in August of 2010.

The other two vids were Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” its one-week total topping 1.2 million; and and Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop,” which landed at #4 with 1,180,360 views for the week ending April, 13, 2008.

Crazy, three of their top five was from the female rapper.

Late last year, when Pink Friday was released, the album earned the second-best sales week for a female hip-hop act ever, behind Lauryn Hill and her solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, in 1998.

In May, she broke Billboard’s record for the most consecutive weeks spent in the Top 10 by a female rap album on the Billboard 200 album chart.

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